Siena (15-17) averaged 6,593 fans at Times Union Center this season, which could make the Saints an appealing host for a first-round game.

Siena isn’t eligible for the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), a 32-team event, which doesn’t take teams with records below .500.

Founded in 2008, the CBI has invited teams with losing records, including Purdue (15-17) and Texas (16-17) last year. However, those are BCS programs.

“Teams are invited based upon performance during their conference and non-conference schedules, as well as how well the team is playing at the end of the regular season,’’ the CBI states on its Web site.

Despite its losing overall record, Siena went 11-9 in the MAAC and ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak. Their nonleague schedule included a loss to Memphis, a pair of defeats to Purdue, and a 2-2 record against Atlantic-10 opponents.

Siena coach Jimmy Patsos would likely welcome the CBI as a chance to give his young, improving team a chance for a taste of postseason play.

Mark Singelais

33 Responses

You’ve got to be kidding!!! If Siena wants to be in a post season tournament, let them beat up on CYO teams, or play the Enormous State University Sandcrabs in a best-of-7. Heck, let them play the high school team that Reggie Theus and Dick Butkus coached.

Personally, Patsos should immediately be fired for his abusive attitude towards players during the season, and for losing his mind like here did here.

2-2 against the dregs of the a-10 PLEASE!!!!! that non conference schedule is just plain terrible year in and year out-you stepped in crap to be playing memphis and you embarrased yourself–Purdue! Purdue! are you kidding me??-losing twice to them should keep you OUT of the tourney

While not deserving to get into NCAA not or city CBI was instituted for loosing teams that played well at end of season. Why not go, gives players a chance to rid themselves of butterflies for potential post season games in the future.

Keith nice hate speech. Shows lack of knowledge of relations Pastos has with his current and past players.

Barc not sure where you are coming from. Using your facts some of the lower level leagues should never see the tourney or not. Not a knock on UA as I hope they beat SB on Saturday, but using your facts their sos ranking, who they played should take them put of any contention for tourney. Thankgod it does not. UA has great kids and is what collegiate athletics is suppose to be about. As does Siena. If anything big schools with their graduation rates should be punished and not able to play in tourneys.

First round exit to a terrible Canisus team. Nice job Patsos! CBI… The Guru of The Grind Will Brown and the Great Danes are going to win another AE title game. Move over Aints! UA coming to take over the TUC!

These tourney selection committees haven’t lost sight of the following Siena brings. Examples: Greensboro, NIT at MSG(and other years in NIT), Twice at Dayton, Denver, Tampa. They want success($$$) at the box office.

Yes indeed Siena… move over, here comes Albany State to the TUC! Nice job half-filling SEFCU for the semi-final game. Seems like 25% of the crowd were Catamount fans. How many tickets did Will Brown have to buy to get 2000 in the building for Albany State? Nice gesture last year — at least he’s trying to get people interested. If you can’t build interest coming off an NCAA appearance there’s no hope. Here’s an idea… Albany State can share the TUC with Siena, they can be the first of two games for the night. That might help get people interested. Since Albany State’s men’s basketball program is light years ahead of Siena’s now the fans must be waiting to attend a game they deserve to play in like the Final Four.

Even with Albany State in the AE finals, all the fans are worried about is what Siena is doing. That’s one of the reasons why the CBI is looking at Siena to host a game, they’ll draw more than 2700 for what amounts to an exhibition game for all intents and purposes.

Here’s hoping for an Albany State win over SBU and get a PIG for the NCAA tournament so you can claim an NCAA tournament win.

I caNT BELIEVE THE HATERS. YOU SHOULD ASHAMED OF YOURSELFS. DO YOU FORGET SIENA WAS PICKED 10TH. tHEY ACCOMPLISHED A LOT HERE. AS FAR AS THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS ABOUT THEIR NONCONFERENCE SCHEDULE. SIENA HELD THEIR OWN. I DO AGREE THE PURDUE GAMES SHOULD BE WON BY SIENA. I THINK THEY WERE STILL YOUNG THEN AND THEY MADE THE LITTLE MISTAKES THAT CAUSED THE LOSSES. OVERALL THEY DID GOOD. NEXT YEAR THEY SHOULD MAKE THE NCAA TOURNAMENT.

Look, a few unknowledgeable fans made some comments about Siena…..ok I can see why Siena fans would react but I hoped the boards would not go there…..UA beat a good Vermont team..RPI around 100…convincingly. And to get to NCAA have to win at Stony Brook…very tough. There is no need to blast UA as these bloggers were not representative of the good people in the UA fan base.(not to mention the ones who root for both schools)(People like Wondering and PR ,among many others, thousands who respect Siena).As I have said all too often I went to both schools and root hard for UA cept when they play Siena. UA was awesome Sunday vs Vermont. Maybe cause I am 65 and have said silly things on past boards I can see that we should respect the accomplishments of other schools, in particular the ones in our own backyard. Reading these boards you can why we have so many wars in the world.And if the intent of Keith and barc 2 was to annoy Siena fans, well they succeeded. Vermont barely lost at NC this yr!!!

The CBI, as in (and you all know this) the 2013 CBI title game where Santa Clara provided a climatic win on the home court of George Mason!! It took Santa Clara 3 games to provide the Broncos with the 2 games to 1 victory….but all you basketball aficionados knew that the CBI finals are the best of three!!
The final game was a hard fought 80-77 win by the Broncos, where the Santa Clara team won its second post season tournament in 3 seasons including the 2011 College Insider.com tournament. George Mason, who was one of the founding members of the CAA back in 1985 (and went to the Final Four in 2006); they became a member of the A10 for the 2013 – 2014 season…. Nawwww, the local little school wouldn’t want to participate in that, now would they?

Agreed, the CBI is only 6 years old..but the biggest part of the message is that it “looks for teams that want to continue to keep playing”… as expressed by many college basketball experts..Nawwww, the local little school wouldn’t want to participate in that, now would they?

Agreed, teams that are senior laded may not want to pursue this challenge, but the teams with a “young core” will be inclined to seize at this opportunity, as stated by many basketball insiders… Nawwww, the little local school wouldn’t want to participate in that, NOW WOULD THEY!!!!!

Just ask “your” team and coach if they would like to continue into the postseason..IN ANY CAPACITY….Nawww, the little local school players and coaches WOULD SAY NO..Now would they?!!?

IMO, whether it’s UAlbany, Saint Rose, Skidmore , or the Albany School of Pharmacy…if post season play is offered to your program… WHATEVER PROGRAM THAT IS… JUST DO IT (and have a ball)!!!

Congrats to Coach Jimmy for being voted as the MAAC Coach of the Year by both College Hoops Daily and College Basketball Insider.

As far as the CBI goes, for those of you who think its a waste of time, you are just plain stupid.

Whether its only one more game or up to 6 games, every extra game they play together and coach the team in tournament format, helps them all grow together as a team and as a program. Any chance you get to play in a NCCA type one and done tournament, the better it is for the program.

Not only do they get an opportunity to keep playing together, the fans hopefully can get a chance to root them on in person if they can get a home game. If they do get a home game, they might get a chance to host a power conference school who would never come here to play otherwise.

Regardless of who they might play, if they get a home game, they would have as good a chance to win as anyone does in the first round.

That also means recruits and other up and coming HS players can see and hear about them and the Siena program that much more, espepcially if they were to get further into the tournament.

And if this tournament is about money and attendance, they just might get another home game if they win their first home game; which means they would have a good shot at getting to the third round?

And of they had to win a 3rd round game away from home and they did it, they would get to the finals where they were guaranteed at least one home more game.

Ya, that would just stink right? Don’t be stupid. The CBI would be an awesome tournament for us to get into.

#10 – you are quoting strength of schedule/rpi – what about head to head???? Last I recall Albany handled Siena in November 2013. It is a joke that teams under .500 who don’t win their conference tournament would go to post season play.

Truthbetold great comment on sticking to subject and giving many facts many do mot know, congrats.

Siena fan yes agree.

Greedog to expand on one of your comments. Please rest of you not a knock on UA. Not a bad idea for UA and Siena to play games back to back at the tic when teams have games scheduled same night. Time starts cam ne adjusted but give UA players and Siena players and the fan base to fond more comradeship. Downside would could hurt UA home court, but then again hasn’t hurt Siena. Only an idea be good for the area more fans. Imagine extra thousand of fans for both schools in the venue.

Mark #16, you do remember that it was the first game of the season, and UA is an experienced laden team that was playing against mostly frosh & new coaching staff. No excuses, but game was very close until late, in fact Siena led for a good portion of the game only to fade down the stretch. If the game was played later in the season or even now, the result could likley be a much different story. Here’s hoping both teams continue in some sort of post season, if you like hoop why would you not want more games, makes no sense.

#18 Love the excuses and love how far LCC has fallen. A few years ago sienna leading a home game part of the way would not have celebrated by their fans and teams with losing records wanting into post season would have been made fun of as much as they make fun of Ryder 🙂

Of course Coach Patsos and his young team would want to continue playing…if offered it is a perfect way for Siena to build continuity and experience playing together -to get ready for next year. And for the Seniors, it is a chance for some good memories before graduation and entering the real world.

Luke thank you for pointing that out. Shows how great person you are. Good luck.

Grumpy couldn’t agree more. They knock each others institutions, ignore facts, history, quotes from coach. Instead of being fans for both schools they only show how shallow and narrow minded they are.

Important fact is that UA is going for a chance for the big tourney. We all should back them. Siena is going for a shot at another tourney bid. We should all back them. Both teams exceeded expectations. Both teams have good young men, Brown and now Pastos do not put up with miscreants. Look at the history of both men. Good luck to both schools.

As for the haters, supposedly you are in school or graduated. Use your education to analyze after the game season, be surprised at what you derive. However be a fan during a, the game that’s the fun part.

the only thing new in the world is the history you don t know. the most renowned basketball coach in the world, red aurbach, would hire a amulance to drive him from his home in the district of columbia to cold spring lane in baltimore to sit at the scores table to watch a passionate young coach work. coach patsos had a standing invitation for thursday lunch at mel kruppin s sitting with greats of sport, journalism, politics and law. all of you allstars that think you know what you are talking about seem to me to be posers. fire jimmy you cry, then pay him him to go take another job – better than the one he has now, and good luck finding a replacement. the coaching fraternity is a close shop, something you union bums should understand well – and next year you can rally to finish in the cellar again. try and find some class. in the opener against UA the boss pulled up at the back door to the arc and the guard said that will be $12 please – to which he smiled and gave the man $15 and walked into the arena knowing it was going to be a long year
playing in the CBI would be for the players and fans – 8143 showed up for sr day and they were all cheering at the end
keith old boy you scream at the refs, except it s from the 23rd row, barc2, you ve never been to memphis, great BBQ, better music, tough place to play. roundballer, bet you never lost your temper. guru of what – the players at canisus might give you an aurguement, where did you play – st bernadette s, give me a break

Conference tournaments make no logical sense except to make money for the schools. Automatic NCAA bids should go to teams that earned it during the regular season by winning their conference. Plus, for conferences like the MAAC and America East that never get an at-large bid, conference tournaments render the regular season meaningless when it comes to making the NCAA tournament. Conferences can choose to have their regular season winner be awarded the automatic NCAA bid (like the Ivy league does) but none do because they want the money from the tournament.